The Truth

Zhao Zhi let go of Zhuang Qingyu.

Now that the truth was clear, Zhuang Qingyu wasn’t going to get away with it. He probably realized that too, so he stopped looking around for any gaps that he could use to escape and he also stopped fidgeting.

But the look in his eyes was still not calm.

Song Caitang could still see the obsessive, psychotic look in Zhuang Qingyu’s eyes as he scanned the people standing around him. The expression he had as he looked at them was different from person to person.

Some he disdained, some he mocked, some he was furious with, some he cursed, some he gloated over…

Zhuang Qingyu was nothing like the man she remembered. It was as if all the shackles on his body had been removed and he was now able to reveal his true colors.

Even the smell of medicinal herbs he had on him at all times smelled harsh and distant now.

“He had always been very clever, so I had to be careful…” Zhuang Qingyu spoke very slowly and deliberately. His eyes were half shut and he folded his hands behind his back, as though he was enjoying this little talk about Liao Xingjian.

“I wanted him and Ye Nan to torture each other until they died, but since he already noticed something amiss and chose death… I had no choice but to fulfil his wish. Initially, it didn’t really matter. He didn’t dare to actually talk about it and didn’t even tell Ye Nan about it. That was the right thing to do. If he dared to say anything about it, I would have killed him and Ye Nan immediately.”

“But the closer he got to the wedding, the more suspiciously he looked at me. I knew then that I could not delay.”

“He must be preparing something, making plans to deal with me, but he wasn’t sure if the person he was looking for was really me… which made it easy for me to make the first move.”

“I continued to observe him in secret. On the day before the wedding, I knew where he had been and who had gone to visit him when. I saw it all. After giving it some thought, I found the perfect chance.”

Zhuang Qingyu took a step forward to scan the group and his lips curled into a faint smile.

“Between 11pm and 1am that night, I got everything prepared, then imitated the call of the cuckoo bird. That’s a secret birdcall that the Zhuang Thunder Pavilion once used many years ago. As an old friend, Liao Xingjian knew that. Regardless of whether he suspected that I was communicating with my subordinates secretly or if I was really just calling for him, he would come out and meet me.”

“And as I had expected, he came out of his room. I was eating from a bowl of almonds.”

At this point, Zhuang Qingyu stopped speaking and raised an eyebrow at Ye Nan. “I know about something that Liao Xingjian and Ye Nan like to do together. Perhaps it started when they were children, but Ye Nan would roast almonds and share them with Liao Xingjian. This activity holds great sentimental value for both of them.”

“As for me, I learned a technique from a friend who dabbles in poisons. I learned how to roast almonds such that they’re cooked on the outside but raw on the inside. It still tastes good, but the poison inside it remains…”

He looked very smug as he smiled. “Almonds are poisonous and must not be eaten raw, but they’re perfectly fine after roasting. I invited him to have some, made up a simple lie, and Liao Xingjian would definitely finish the entire bowl without question. I only pretended to eat one or two, so nothing would happen to me.”

Ye Nan stared unblinkingly at Zhuang Qingyu, her fingers trembling slightly. “What lie did you tell him?”

Zhuang Qingyu’s eyes curved as he gave her a smile that made her want to punch him in the face. “Make a guess?”

Ye Nan was about to scream from how much she wanted to know.

“If you kneel down and kowtow three times, I’ll tell you.”

This man’s wickedness really had no limits.

Ye Nan pursed her lips tightly. She didn’t want to admit defeat, but it seemed like she didn’t have a choice…

But Song Caitang figured it out already. “Did you tell him that the almonds were roasted by Ye Nan?”

Zhuang Qingyu froze.

Song Caitang carefully thought through their previous statements and remembered that Ye Nan had gone to talk to Liao Xingjian just after Xi Rui.

“Did you tell Liao Xingjian that Ye Nan had actually brought along a bowl of almonds she had roasted, but because she saw that Liao Xingjian was still very intimate with Xi Rui, she got jealous and threw the bowl aside, but you happened to pick it up?”

Zhuang Qingyu looked surprised before he started clapping for her.

It was obvious why he was clapping.

Ye Nan looked like she was about to collapse.

“That’s why everyone knows you as an expert in cracking such cases. You’re very clever, Miss Song.” Zhuang Qingyu’s smile turned sinister after he was done clapping. “That’s exactly what I told him. Liao Xingjian loved Ye Nan too much. And because of what happened four years ago, he didn’t want to miss anything about her or from her. I said that I happened to see that and picked up the bowl of almonds, but I didn’t want them to go to waste, so I called him to come out. And he believed me. I had to give him the entire bowl of almonds because he didn’t want to give me even one and he took it back to his room.”

“He wasn’t sure if the person who had hurt him and Ye Nan was me, and even if he was sure, he wouldn’t try to attack me that night because he was getting married the next day. He was wary of me, kept watch on me and guessed that I was trying to torture them, but he didn’t think that I would actually kill him. And with the addition of ‘almonds roasted personally by Ye Nan’… But of course I was going to kill him!”

Zhuang Qingyu’s eyes widened as he glared nastily at Ye Nan. “Even if this didn’t kill him, I had other backup plans! I refuse to allow both of you to enjoy any sort of happiness! Both of you could not get married! He had to die that very night!”

“But he ate those almonds. Every single one of them. And the poison took effect!”

“Ye Nan, Ye Nan, he really loved you very, very much! HAHAHAHA!”

Ye Nan couldn’t take it anymore. She burst into tears and trembled all over.

“He treated you as a friend… as someone he could brave dangers with, as a confidante he could share his thoughts with, yet you… you actually plotted to kill him! You’re inhuman, Zhuang Qingyu! You’re inhuman!”

“If both of you had not killed Hongfeng, we could have been best friends for the rest of our lives!” Zhuang Qingyu’s voice was even louder and more agitated than hers. “I could have braved dangers with both of you! I could have gone the extra mile for you! I could have even died for you! But what did both of you do?”

“You killed… you killed the most important person to me.”

Ye Nan shouted, “We did not kill her! She died in an accident!”

“I’m not going to believe that!” Zhuang Qingyu glared at Ye Nan as though he had completely lost it. “Who would believe that?! Am I some ignorant three year old to you? Everybody’s done something like that before! Covering up the truth, pretending that everything’s just fine, trying to make themselves look good… Everyone’s done that before! Ye Nan, you’re not some ordinary farmer who has to look honest and kind, so stop pretending to be a saint! It disgusts me!”

“So much for telling me all day, boasting to me all day about your relationship, about how wonderful and perfect your relationship has been since you were children, how blissful your future will be together, how you have no space in your heart for anyone else, how you’ll spend the rest of your lives supporting one another…”

“I could have had that too.”

Zhuang Qingyu’s voice was filled with both sadness and madness. “Hongfeng and I could have enjoyed that day! If we had been granted the time!”

Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi exchanged glances as they both suddenly thought of the bowl.

According to Zhuang Qingyu, Liao Xingjian had brought the entire bowl of almonds back to his study. He’d finished the almonds, but what about the bowl?

Wouldn’t anybody notice there was an extra bowl in the study that had come from nowhere?

“The almonds and the bowl,” Zhao Zhi brought Zhuang Qingyu back on topic as he tapped his sword with his knuckles. “Zhuang Qingyu, you haven’t accounted for them yet.”

Zhuang Qingyu looked a little upset at the mention of this. “Of course, the almonds were from Hua Rong’s shop. It’s too bad that he decided to get into this line. As for the bowl, when Xin Yongwang and I went into the study in the morning, I quickly took the bowl and hid it secretly. Xin Yongwang didn’t notice. After that, I threw the bowl into the pond at Hua Rong’s residence, but unfortunately none of you found this piece of evidence.”

Song Caitang nearly started applauding him.

After doing all this, he also wanted to frame Hua Rong?

If the plan failed, he was going to push the blame to someone else?

“HAHAHA! But even the heavens were on my side!” Zhuang Qingyu smiled as he talked about what everyone saw when the body was found. “A dagger was sticking out of Liao Xingjian’s chest! Who would imagine that I was the killer? Not even the emperor could have done anything about that!”

Then, he glared hatefully at Song Caitang.

If not for this woman, his entire plan would have succeeded. Nobody would have thought he did it and he wouldn’t have had to deal with Ye Nan in such a hurry. He wouldn’t have made so many mistakes and he wouldn’t be in this situation right now!

“I’m going to kill you…” Ye Nan had tear stains on her cheeks, but her eyes were blazing with vengefulness. She slammed the ground and got up, drew her sword and charged toward Zhuang Qingyu.

Zhuang Qingyu was a martial artist, so his reaction speed was extremely swift. When Ye Nan charged at him, he calmly turned to the side, pulled his sword out and blocked her attack easily.

Clang! The two blades collided and sent sparks flying.

It was truly exciting and heartstopping to watch highly skilled martial artists duel each other. Song Caitang gasped and couldn’t take her eyes off the fight. She felt like she didn’t even have enough eyes to take in everything!

They seriously sent sand and rocks flying!

And they moved so fast, they were really nothing but a blur!

They were extremely light on their feet and they drew their swords so quickly, Song Caitang couldn’t even tell who was who, what move they were using, where they were going and whether they were aiming for their opponent’s upper or lower body!

The weather was perfect too. The night wind was strong and was only becoming stronger, so everyone’s clothes flapped wildly in the wind. The moon in the sky was slowly covered by the dark clouds, then revealed again, so sometimes you could see it clearly and sometimes you couldn’t.

The only thing that never changed were the brilliant sparks that continued to fly about. They shone so bright, so hot, and so crazy!

This battle was between two people with nothing but hatred for each other, so they didn’t hold back at all. The only thing they could see was each other as they did everything they could to kill the other.

They were each other’s enemy!

Song Caitang finally realized how Ye Nan had been able to maintain her position within the sect, why so many people were willing to remain loyal to her and why she was so famous in the martial arts circles. It wasn’t for nothing.

Ye Nan… was a very strong fighter.

Her technique was excellent and her moves were sharp, unlike how most female martial artists preferred to fight at a distance and preferred to use more flexible swords and other weapons that could change from one to another so that they could still defeat their opponent despite being smaller in size most of the time. Ye Nan liked to fight her opponents up front, fought decisively and did not waste any time or opportunities. Even if she got hurt, she fought on bravely. She was a really fierce character.

And for most people, their style of doing things reflected their personality.

Ye Nan…

Was actually a very manly woman.

During this time… she seemed weak probably only because she was in such emotional turmoil.

After some time, both sides were injured, but they were all superficial wounds and could be ignored. But finally, Ye Nan managed to get a bit of space. As her body spun in the air, she suddenly stopped and swung the tip of her sword downward…

…and lopped a large chunk of flesh off Zhuang Qingyu’s shoulder.

“That’s for Xingjian!”

Zhuang Qingyu winced and his movements stopped for one second. But that was enough to give her another chance.

She swung her sword beautifully and struck Zhuang Qingyu’s waist hard. “That’s for myself!”

Blood instantly poured out of the wound. Zhuang Qingyu was now badly injured.

But he wasn’t going to shrink back.

He had gone through terrifying torture as a child and he had practically climbed his way out of hell. He was merely bleeding and not dead yet.

The severe injury seemed to have agitated him and motivated him, on the contrary. He pushed back against Ye Nan’s sword and used that as a springboard to send himself somersaulting into the air before using one leg to kick her in the shoulder.

His full body weight as well as the momentum he got from springing into the air pushed Ye Nan so hard that she slid backward and only managed to stop when she hit a pillar.

He wasn’t done yet. His sinister eyes glowed fiercely as he brandished his sword. There was a whoosh in the air as he charged toward her like a hurricane. His sword stabbed right through her shoulder and into the pillar, pinning her to the pillar.

“That’s for Hongfeng!”

Blood instantly spurted out and Ye Nan clenched her teeth tightly as her forehead broke into a cold sweat. It took every ounce of effort to keep herself from screaming in pain.

Zhuang Qingyu narrowed his eyes and said in a hoarse voice, “You still don’t know what she did for me, right? I’ll tell you now! She was a kinder and purer soul than any of you! She was a truly wonderful person!”

“She didn’t know who I was at all, and she knew that the person who had locked me up was a pretty frightening character. I can’t even say we met by chance – she had literally stumbled into this place by accident. But when she saw that I was covered in wounds… it just took her one glance, and she decided she wouldn’t give up on me and leave me there.”

“If not for her, I wouldn’t have survived and I wouldn’t be who I am today. 13 years ago, during the night of the Ghost Festival, she saved my life! She made me who I am!”

Of course he had to repay her for such a favor!

“On that night, I looked up at the lights that lit up the night and river and swore that my life would be hers! I would do anything to find her and repay her!”

But Ye Nan blinked in shock.

13 years ago?

On the night of the Ghost Festival?

“Ha… haha… hahahaha…” Ye Nan stared at Zhuang Qingyu for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing as tears poured down her face.

“So… I actually brought this on myself…”

“That night, I shouldn’t have tried to be kind. I shouldn’t have saved you.”

That last sentence was spoken very softly, but Zhuang Qingyu was very near to her, so he could hear her clearly.

His face instantly paled. “What did you say?”

Pfft! Ye Nan spat a mouthful of blood, staining her collar a bright red color.